THE Lawn Tennis Association have defended their coaching structure after Andy Murray claimed they had "ruined" the early years of his brother's career.

Teenager Murray believes his brother's world ranking of 896th is a poor reflection of the potential he showed several years ago.

Jamie Murray was one of the world's top juniors and despite being 15 months older than 18-year-old Andy, has not taken the same strides forward.

As the governing body of British tennis, the LTA provide the funding and expertise at the grassroots of the game, but Andy Murray believes they were unable to give his brother the right level of support in his early teens.

"My brother is very talented," said Murray, the world number 65. "He was number two in the world when he was around the age of 13 and then he went down to an LTA school in Cambridge and they ruined him for a few years. It was their fault.

"But I really want him to come back and do well because he is a good guy and he works very hard.

"He wants to be a tennis player and I think he has shown he has the talent."

The Murray brothers guided Scotland to victory over England in the inaugural Aberdeen Cup at the weekend.

Quality

They combined for a doubles win over England's Greg Rusedski and David Sherwood yesterday, and there were aspects of 19-year-old Jamie's game which suggested he possesses the quality to follow his brother a good way up the senior men's rankings.

Jamie will be 20 in February, and despite reaching the doubles semi-finals of the junior US Open with his brother in 2004, he has not made the same advances as his younger sibling since.

The current top three British players - Tim Henman, Rusedski and Murray - came through the recognised LTA coaching ranks as youngsters.

Rusedski grew up in Canada and moved to Britain as a ready-made top-50 professional, while Henman also developed largely outside typical LTA coaching structures.

The younger Murray spent the formative stages of his career learning the ropes in Spain, albeit with the aid of LTA financial support.

LTA performance director David Felgate stressed there could be no uniform way of bringing on players.

Flexible

Their monetary input allowed Andy Murray to develop his game in Spain, and Henman's former coach believes the LTA are achieving success by being flexible.

Felgate said: "The LTA recognises that different players react to different approaches which is why we have introduced choice and flexibility into our performance system and continue to support our best players wherever they want to train in Britain or beyond."

Former world number four Rusedski was more diplomatic about the standard of the UK's coaching infrastructure, but he too sees problems which need to be addressed.

Rusedski said: "Things are getting better but there is still a lot of room for improvement, that's for sure.

"But it is also about finding those kids who have something different and finding parents who are really involved with the kids.

"Judy (Murray) is very involved with Andy's tennis and he is quite a fighter and a character. He is not your average young person.

"As he said the other day, he hates to lose at anything as it is life or death for him, so to speak.

"I think with myself, Tim and Andy it is the same sort of mentality, even though we show it in three different ways.

"It is about finding the kids that are like that from a young age and whether they are in or out of the system, trying to find a way to develop them.

"There has to be a way to work it so hopefully things can get better, in fact they are getting better but there is still room for improvement."